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A BNZ customer who unknowingly turned into an electronic mule for a relationship scam was not so willing to accept that he had been defrauded that he took his business to another bank, says BNZ’s chief of financial crimes.
The bank is running its Scam Savvy week since Monday.
Ashley Kai Fong, head of financial crimes, said that while scam activity declined as countries around the world entered the Covid-19 lockdown, it had picked up again as restrictions were loosened.
BNZ customers were the most affected by tech support scams, in which people called in saying they were trying to “fix” problems, but actually had access to their computers. The prevalence of invoice scams, in which people were sent a credible invoice, but with the payment details changed, had increased over the past year.
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The number of bank and online phishing scams has risen 75 percent year-on-year, he said. That involved people communicating with customers of banks or telecommunications companies pretending to be from their provider in an attempt to obtain their passwords or credit card information.
A report by CERT NZ found a 229 percent increase in scams in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, and a 4 percent increase in all cyber scams and fraud in the first half. of the year. New Zealanders lost $ 7.8 million in total in the first six months of 2020 to online scammers.
Kai Fong said that one of the most difficult scams he faced last year was related to a customer who was receiving mobile phones and laptops that had been paid for with a stolen credit card.
Chris McKeen / Stuff
Ashley Kai Fong, director of financial crimes at BNZ, says relationship scams are one of the most difficult to help clients.
He received them on behalf of a person he believed to be his girlfriend, whom he had met online. Then he shipped them internationally.
The scammer told her that the money from the sale of the merchandise would allow her to travel to New Zealand to be with him.
“This customer was in love and, without knowing it, was an electronics mule. Under the pretext of a serious relationship, a foreign scammer was using our client to receive illegally acquired goods and take them to clients around the world.
“We detected the illegal activity and tried to convince the victim that he was involved in a sophisticated romantic scam in which he was being used as an intermediary for stolen goods. But he didn’t have a bar of that, he was too in the rabbit hole. “
The client interrupted its banking relationship with BNZ and went ashore. Despite repeated inquiries from BNZ, it is unknown whether the customer continues to deal with the scammer.
The man did not lose money as a result of the scam. Kai Fong said that the fraud was discovered through business transactions conducted through BNZ’s systems: There were a large number of electronic items purchased and shipped to his address, paid for by his “partner” with stolen credit card numbers. The bank had contacted the police, citing the customer as a victim of the fraud.
Kai Fong said it was common for clients caught in romance or relationship scams to be reluctant to find out they had been scammed. He said it was one of the most devastating things that could happen to a person. “They think they are in a relationship with their loved one.
“Unfortunately, we see cases where a client refuses assistance even when the facts have been presented.
“Relationship scams are really annoying because victims feel like they are in a real, authentic relationship. Then they find out it’s a scam and their world collapses around them, it’s devastating.
“These scams are often perpetrated for months, sometimes years, and the scammer establishes what feels like a very real and deep emotional connection with their victims before starting the scam itself.
“When we encounter these scams, we often ask the victim to involve their family and friends to ensure they have a support network around them while we fix the fraud. Even if you get the money back, the emotional damage can be severe. Victims feel cheated and vulnerable and it has very real repercussions for the victim in their other relationships.
He said that people should be on the lookout for situations where they are asked to do something that is a bit unusual or unexpected.
But complex scams, in particular, could attract people so that while anyone looking from the outside would see that something was wrong, the victim did not realize that easily.
